Yappy Hour?  What's a Yappy Hour?

A "Yappy Hour" is a fundraising event that usually takes place at a restaurant or bar that is pet-friendly.  Since health codes prohibit animals from inside of eating establishments, they usually have an outdoor patio or deck area where animals are permitted. 

You can ask the owners of such establishments in your local area if they will be willing to host a "Yappy Hour."  It's great for their advertising budget, too, as it costs them nothing at all, and may bring them repeat customers.  Win-win!

This is a very fun, easy way to raise money for ESRA.  I've included an email/flyer we use to publicize ours in the Atlanta area..

Here's how we do ours:

1.  We send out an email to our local ESRA members AND adopters telling them about it.  We also make up and print flyers to let other local dog lovers know about the event.  We hold ours between 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. in the evening (although a number of folks stay much later)!

2.  On the evening of the event, we set up a table just outside the door and sell "Admission Donation Tickets."  $10 per adult, $5 per child is what we charge, and there's no charge for dogs, as they're the "Guests of Honor".  We use raffle tickets (the two-part kind).   The price of admission includes one free drink and a chance to win a door prize (anything will work for a door prize -- you might even be able to get one of the other local merchants to donate something for advertising purposes).   We use a black magic marker to write the letter "B" on one half of the raffle ticket.  This stands for "Bar" and is the ticket they give the waitress for their "free" drink.  The other half they keep for their raffle chance.  We write the last three digits of their ticket number on cut-up squares of paper to put in the raffle jar from which we later in the evening pull the winning number. You have to be present to win, so this encourages people to stay longer.

3.  This is a win-win for ESRA and the establishment hosting the event.  The way the owner handles things for the "free drink" is he only charges us his "cost" for that drink, not their usual price of a drink.  This would usually be about $2 - $3 per "free" drink. Therefore, ESRA gets to keep the vast majority of the admission ticket proceeds. You settle up with the owner at the end of the evening.  The owner benefits because most everyone will also order at least one other drink at the usual price, and also will often order food.  Plus, this attracts people who may never have been to the estabishment before, and who could become repeat customers.  This is such a popular event at the place that we have ours, that a lot of the "locals" show up for them regardless of what rescue group is having one!   

4.  Also put out a donation jar!  People will usually drop a few bucks in this, as well.

If you have any other questions about doing a Yappy Hour in your area, just let me know, and I'll be happy to try to answer them.  

Carol Sanderson
ESRA - Atlanta

Thanks to Carol this "how-to", and to David Latimer for the photo.